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Ocumetics Bionic Lens
#34373 05/19/15 11:39 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Ocumetics Bionic Lens could give you vision 3x better than 20/20

The future is almost here. This is freakin' fabulous!

Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
grelber #34374 05/19/15 11:45 PM
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Quote:
Imagine being able to see three times better than 20/20 vision....

Uhhh... You'd need glasses to be functional. wink


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In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
grelber #34380 05/20/15 08:43 AM
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Lots of of extravagant claims have bitten the dust. If it seems to good to be true...


Jon

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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
jchuzi #34382 05/20/15 09:16 AM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
Lots of of extravagant claims have bitten the dust. If it seems to good to be true...

It doesn't sound extravagant at all ... and it sounds much better than the already available laser-tuned lens implants being used in the UK and elsewhere.
Once the human trials have been conducted and the product approved (at least by Health Canada), I'll be first in line for bilateral implants.
Be seein' ya. [Remember "The Prisoner" with Patrick McGoohan?]

Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
artie505 #34386 05/20/15 12:04 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
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Imagine being able to see three times better than 20/20 vision....

Uhhh... You'd need glasses to be functional. wink

That doesn't mean "permanent binocular vision". The term "20/20" means at 20 feet (the first 20) you can see things an average person can see at 20 feet (the second 20) away. So if your vision is 20/100, you have to stand 20 feet from something to see it as well as someone else that's 100 feet from it.

I've known two people that were classified with 20/15 vision, and I believe babe ruth was similarly gifted. (if the pitcher didn't hide the ball in his glove, he could see the placement of his fingers on it prior to the pitch, to predict the flight, "ok this next one's going to be a curveball", and he claimed to be able to observe the spin of the ball by watching the stitching on the ball as it hurled toward him)

It's not just a matter of focal optics at that point. Your retina etc need to be similarly superior. Like a condor that can be riding thermals at 8,000ft and spot roadkill on the highway. Their eyes are a lot smaller than ours. Their cornea and lens are probably approaching perfection, but they've also got an incredible density of rods on their retina.


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34387 05/20/15 02:20 PM
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The latest interview with the inventor, Garth Webb, provides further information:
• Visual acuity could improve to the extent that one could visualize the cells on one's fingertip held ca 1 cm from the eye.
• The possibility exists that the lens could be configured with a battery which could power something like a Bluetooth which could turn the lens into a permanent computer screen. (The media have grabbed onto this with snippets from "The Bionic Man" and "Robocop".)
• The factory in Delta, BC, when all is approved, could produce 50,000 lenses per day.

Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34389 05/20/15 05:27 PM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
It's not just a matter of focal optics at that point. [...] Their cornea and lens are probably approaching perfection, but they've also got an incredible density of rods on their retina.

And let’s not forget (the rest of) a strongly visually specialized brain, like many other birds. cool


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
grelber #34390 05/21/15 12:22 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Visual acuity could improve to the extent that one could visualize the cells on one's fingertip held ca 1 cm from the eye.

heh, reminds me of my mother. She's really nearsighted but she can take an object and hold it right in her face, and see incredible detail that I'd need a strong magnifying lens to see. She'll look at a persian rug and be able to see detail in how the knots are tied to the warps.


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34419 05/22/15 11:09 PM
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Prior to my cataract surgery my visual acuity was 20/250, and I amazed people by reading microprint, but that, like counting the knots in my hand-woven rug and seeing distant objects as if they were at arm's length, is something I've never needed to do.

Not the least bit curiously, our natural, yellow-sun endowed eyes are perfectly adapted to the world in which we live, and when we need to supplement them we've got near miraculous prosthetics for, for instance, micro-surgery or reading a car's license plate from space.

My cataract surgery left me with mono-vision, i.e. I see 20/70 with my left eye and can read virtually anything I need to read...20/25 with my right eye, and I qualify to drive. I've got a pair of glasses that gives me 20/20 in both eyes and a pair of (equalizing) reading glasses; I'm not sure why I keep the former around, and, on average, I use the latter less than twice a year.

If I ever need superpowers I'll say "SHAZAM!" and wait for something extraordinary to happen.

No thank you!

Count me out!!!


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
grelber #34421 05/23/15 01:38 AM
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Figures this would be Canadian. In the US, it's actually considered a violation of medical ethics (and doctors can be fined or lose their license) to do "human improvements" whose goal is to provide better than normal function. So, for example, artificial retinas for the blind are ok, artificial retinas that give better than 20.20 vision (or allow seeing into infrared or ultraviolet) are not.


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
tacit #34424 05/23/15 09:15 AM
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Originally Posted By: tacit
Figures this would be Canadian. In the US, it's actually considered a violation of medical ethics (and doctors can be fined or lose their license) to do "human improvements" whose goal is to provide better than normal function. So, for example, artificial retinas for the blind are ok, artificial retinas that give better than 20.20 vision (or allow seeing into infrared or ultraviolet) are not.

Apparently not (harking back to the original article).

If the clinical trials turn out as expected, US consumers would be jumping on the bandwagon faster than Canadians — even if they might have to head to Canada to do it. [See next.]

As for "Figures this would be Canadian": Remember who got the bandwagon rolling in North America for same-sex marriages.

Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34615 06/09/15 02:06 AM
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Quote:
I've known two people that were classified with 20/15 vision, and I believe babe ruth was similarly gifted. (if the pitcher didn't hide the ball in his glove, he could see the placement of his fingers on it prior to the pitch, to predict the flight, "ok this next one's going to be a curveball", and he claimed to be able to observe the spin of the ball by watching the stitching on the ball as it hurled toward him)

I've heard other baseball players speak of being able to predict using spin of the stitches. It's interesting because today they throw a lot faster and with more deceptive motion than then. Of course, Ruth started out as a pitcher and could take advantage of any 'tell' a pitcher had.

What humans do lack is any peripheral vision. If they can change that, life would be interesting. The parrot to the left here < has that problem solved, however, he has other issues.

Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
slolerner #34620 06/09/15 01:29 PM
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Originally Posted By: slolerner
What humans do lack is any peripheral vision. If they can change that, life would be interesting. The parrot to the left here < has that problem solved, however, he has other issues.


That's the difference between being a predator or prey animal. Predators need to have good stereo vision, be able to track moving targets, and the sharpest vision and most visual processing occurring in the center of their field to be a successful hunter.

Prey OTOH need close to omnidirectional vision, and the ability to spot movement anywhere in their field of view. Detail isn't too important, nor is stereo range-finding.

And that's why predators usually have both eyes forward-facing, and prey almost always have one eye on each side of their head. Just by looking at the eye placement of any given animal you can usually tell which is more important to them, defense or offense.

Raptors take that pretty far into the extreme - owls can't even move their eyes, which remain fixed forward-facing, and hawks have incredibly sharp forward vision. Then look at most insects with their low resolution compound eyes that cover 360 around, up 90, and down sometimes all the way to 90 as well. Some insects can detect motion in absolutely every direction at once. (now you know why you can't sneak up on that fly with your newspaper)

(I wish the IMG tag would get fixed)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3281/3085177911_0dc4c6d520.jpg


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
slolerner #34621 06/09/15 01:42 PM
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Originally Posted By: slolerner
What humans do lack is any peripheral vision. If they can change that, life would be interesting. The parrot to the left here < has that problem solved, however, he has other issues.

Interesting notion, but factually somewhat problematic. The issue is in part that ‘peripheral vision’ means something (subtly) different in eye biology than the way you use it. If you’ll allow me to interpret your comment, I suspect that you’re actually referring to the size of the entire field of view of both eyes together (expressed in degrees), rather than to peripheral vision. If you peruse the link above, you can easily imagine that a parrot’s eye has a similar peripheral vision as that of a human (various individual eye differences not taken into account).

One difference between a parrot and a human is the placement of the eyes (to the side or to the front), and the degree of visual overlap of the individual eyes. This difference is also present among different birds. The parrot's overlap is much less, allowing both eyes to cover a greater field of view, but at the cost of binocular vision. For that, check out the raptors, who btw have additional visual goodies up their wings/sleeves. tongue


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34622 06/09/15 02:02 PM
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Originally Posted By: virtual1
Some insects can detect motion in absolutely every direction at once. (now you know why you can't sneak up on that fly with your newspaper)
Flies detect fast motion better than slow. If you sneak up SLOWLY on the fly and then swat it when you're an inch or so from it, you'll be successful.

The hand is quicker than the eye is,
but slower than the fly is.


Jon

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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
jchuzi #34623 06/09/15 03:27 PM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
The hand is quicker than the eye is,
but slower than the fly is.


Anticipation helps, too. Flies always jump before they fly away. They do that to get off the ground and moving in the air before their wings take over. So aim for where the fly is going to jump, because that's where he'll be when the newspaper reaches him. Even though you splat 'em on the wall, your newspaper probably made contact with him after he'd jumped and gotten 1-3" up off the wall/table, and your newspaper just drove him back to the wall.

Sometimes I'll snatch a fly with my hand. (tougher than you'd think) You have to aim for several inches off the wall/table, but it can be done. So then you have a fly buzzing around in your hand wondering who turned out the lights. Challenge 2 is to knock them out cold by throwing them at a tabletop. You have to release right above the table or they'll pull out or hit soft under power. A clean toss will knock them out cold for several minutes usually. "TAKE THAT!"


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34636 06/10/15 01:44 AM
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V1, you had me laughing so hard!

What I meant about human peripheral vision is you hit a blind spot pretty quickly. The baseball scenario seems perfectly suited for our kind of tunnel-vision. We may have depth perception, all those goodies, but we get hit by cars we never saw coming.

Our vision has many faults, Slydini:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i30qx9eI1r0

This one is for Virtual, Flydini:

http://milkandcookies.com/link/45516

Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
slolerner #34638 06/10/15 11:37 AM
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btw, when they finally come to, they CAN'T fly. So what do you call it then? You call it a Walk. (love that!)

But seriously, not sure why, but they will need at least another 30 seconds or so before they can take off, so they'll spend that time running around on the table and occasionally twitching their wings before finally taking off. (they don't usually come back) Flies can run surprisingly fast, you just don't get to see them do it very often.

Nice on the flydini, here's the direct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9xKU8eYCFk


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
slolerner #34642 06/10/15 07:42 PM
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Part of the problem with improving peripheral vision is that it requires not just changes to the eye, but changes to the brain as well.

We're not usually consciously aware of it, but we only have clear vision right in the center of our field of vision, in a very small area called the fovea. Our vision away from the fovea is almost unbelievably awful. Visual processing is one of the most intensive, processor-dependent things our brain does, and more than 80% of the vision-processing neurons in the brain are dedicated just to the central 7 degrees or so of our vision (and about half the nerve fibers exiting the retina carry information from the small area in the middle). You can train yourself to recognize how terrible your vision is outside that very small space in the middle, and when you do, it's rather...err, eye-opening.

So improving our peripheral vision would mean throwing a massive number of new brain neurons at the problem. That's unlikely to happen, for a number of reasons.


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
tacit #34645 06/10/15 10:53 PM
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If there were a way to turn vision 'wide screen' so to speak, that would be astounding!

Btw, a Gabor patch, supposedly used to give athletes sharper vision:

http://sites.sinauer.com/wolfe3e/chap3/gaborF.htm

Source:

http://www.livescience.com/50835-brain-t...gn=related_test

Thanks Alternaut. Interesting site.

Last edited by slolerner; 06/10/15 11:21 PM. Reason: More
Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
slolerner #34648 06/11/15 12:31 AM
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Originally Posted By: slolerner
If there were a way to turn vision 'wide screen' so to speak, that would be astounding!

Of course that might require rewiring and retraining the brain to take in and process all the additional data. Dyslexia has been theorized as a condition where the brain takes in all stimuli at equal intensity resulting in an inability to focus on a specific object or task. Add more visual input and the most graceful ballet dancer might not be able to walk on stage without an unintentional pratfall.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
joemikeb #34659 06/12/15 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Of course that might require rewiring and retraining the brain to take in and process all the additional data. Dyslexia has been theorized as a condition where the brain takes in all stimuli at equal intensity resulting in an inability to focus on a specific object or task.

That sounds more like a description for ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) ?


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34668 06/12/15 03:49 PM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Of course that might require rewiring and retraining the brain to take in and process all the additional data. Dyslexia has been theorized as a condition where the brain takes in all stimuli at equal intensity resulting in an inability to focus on a specific object or task.

That sounds more like a description for ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) ?

It is relatively common for one person to suffer from both Dyslexia and ADHD. In fact even medical professionals are sometimes guilty of using the terms synonymously. Dyslexia is essentially ADHD specifically in the context of reading. The treatment is generally the same.

Last edited by joemikeb; 06/12/15 03:52 PM.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
joemikeb #34694 06/15/15 06:02 PM
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I thought dyslexia was a failure of the brain to properly organize information it is trying to process? (like the classic example of swapping of characters or words when reading)


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Re: Ocumetics Bionic Lens
Virtual1 #34698 06/15/15 09:07 PM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
I thought dyslexia was a failure of the brain to properly organize information it is trying to process? (like the classic example of swapping of characters or words when reading)

You are confusing the symptom with the cause. The swapping of characters is the result of receiving and processing data faster than it can be written down, together with an inability to focus and prioritize inputs and outputs. My dyslexic son was failing math because he would be solving problem two on the paper while still recording the answer to problem one. That was solved by teaching him to mask off all the other problems with his free hand until he had completed answering and recording the answer to the current problem. The same trick enabled him to spell, write, and read coherently. As with most dyslexic males that pretty well resolved itself around puberty. He went from being forced into the math for dummies class to top of his class in Navigation School for the U. S. Navy and later becoming an M.D.

Dyslexia is much less common in females than it is in males and female dyslexics never get over it. I know some dyslexic women who have done well in college, but had to have someone else read the textbooks to them and even had to hire transcriptionists to keyboard their college papers.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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